Higher Canadian standards bar top marathoners from Olympics
Posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 | 0 Comments | Category: - Olympics, - Running, - Running, Articles, Race ReportsThe first Canadian man and woman to surge across the finish line of the Ottawa marathon this past weekend won’t be going to the Olympics in Beijing in August even though they both met international Olympic standards.
Gitah Macharia came 14th overall at the ING Ottawa marathon Sunday with a time of 2:16:55 and Tara Quinn-Smith came fourth in her category with a time of 2:33:58.
Quinn-Smith beat the women’s international A standard of 2:37:00 by more than three minutes and the B standard of 2:42 by more than eight during her first-ever marathon race.
However, she did not meet Athletics Canada’s tougher A and B women’s standards of 2:29:08 and 2:31:00 respectively.
The trail running season got underway this past sunday with the first of five races in the 8th Frontrunners GutBuster Trail Running Series presented by The North Face. GutBuster 001 held at Royal Roads University is a deceivingly difficult course with many short steep hills and lots of roots and fallen trees which keep the runners focused. 238 runners took to the trails and challenged themselves to either the 6km short course event or 11km long course event. The weather behaved itself and everyone was treated to a fairly dry course….lets hope for more mud next year!
Two BC athletes, Matt Young and Curtis Christopherson together with a small group of other Canadians, recently competed in the 10th anniversary edition of the Oakley 100k Del Sahara, an ultra-trail run race across the deserts of Tunisia, Africa. Matt and Curtis are members of Team Average Jo, the brainchild of the